The city of Boulder is considering what its energy future will look like. The goal it to acquire "clean, local and reliable" energy in the future, and one voter-approved option is to start a municipal utility. For more information on the history of this decision, click here.

Desire2Learn second system outage 'very disruptive' for CU-Boulder faculty, students

D2L nor CU know when system will be functional again

University of Colorado freshman Maram Alhouti, at left, junior Candice Clouse and Sianna Elmanouzi look at their class schedules on Tuesday, Jan. 15, at the UMC on the CU campus in Boulder.
(JEREMY PAPASSO)

Desire2Learn, the online learning system used by the University of Colorado, is experiencing a second outage this spring, potentially affecting classes at hundreds of institutes worldwide.

The system, also known as D2L, is used by teachers at K through 12 as well as higher-education campuses to host online classes and is relied on by professors across campus who conduct tests and quizzes and post assignments there for students.

Several campuses, including CU-Boulder, also host online courses through D2L.

The system — which is also utilized by companies in the healthcare, government and corporate sectors — has more than 8 million learners, said Virginia Jamieson, D2L's senior director of corporate communications, in an email Thursday.

“We are experiencing significant challenges in one of our cloud data centers and that is dramatically impacting some students' online experience,” Jamieson said. “This stems from the file virtualization hardware not interacting well with the storage environment.

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The system experienced a similar outage in mid-January that lasted about a day, according to CU's Office of Information Technology. D2L has been down now for the second time since Tuesday around noon, leaving students and faculty without the valuable resources.

Greg Stauffer, spokesman for CU's Office of Information Technology, said it's likely that all of the institutions using the system through servers hosted by the Canadian-based company, which includes CU, would be experiencing a similar outage. Other schools who chose to host the system on their own servers may not have the same issues, he said.

Stauffer described the outage as a “blizzard” and “very disruptive.”

Jamieson said the company was not releasing the number of institutions affected by the outage or how many schools are using the system through the company's servers.

“Not all of the institutions were affected,” Jamieson said, noting that CEO John Baker has “rallied every available resource,” to find a resolution.

“We are doing everything within our power to fix this problem and we understand the severe impact these service problems have on students, faculty members and administrators.”

D2L did not release the cause of the outage but Stauffer said he was told by the company that it was due to an improvement upgrade being preformed by D2L that is supposed to improve the service.

Neither D2L or CU know when the system is expected to be functional again.

After two D2L outages in the first three weeks of spring classes, Stauffer said the university is considering several options for improvement, like moving the system to on-site servers, which would cost the school additional time and money.

“D2L is such a rich tool,” Stauffer said. “It does so many different things and brings so many features and tools together. What we need to focus on now is how to provide that to people with a level of consistency required on this campus, which is clearly not happening this semester.”

The university first adopted D2L in the fall of 2011 and became the campus's primary online learning system in the fall of 2012.

CU is holding feedback sessions this and next week, allowing students, faculty and staff to voice their frustrations about the outage, according to the Office of Information Technology website. The website, colorado.edu/oit, also includes service alerts to keep the community informed about any campus-wide technology outages, failures and fixes.

CU senior Wendy Guardado said her teachers have been finding other resources to keep coursework on track during the outage.

“One of my professors built a whole new website, basically overnight, for us to use since it wasn't working,” Guardado said.

Stauffer said his office is posting links to alternative tools, like Google Sites and Google Drive, as part of their service alerts to help faculty and students cope with the outage.

Ballot language:
In November, Boulder voters narrowly approved two ballot issues related to starting a municipal utility: 2B and 2C. You can read the full text of the ballot language on the city's website.

Issue 2B asked voters to increase the existing utility occupation tax by up to $1.9 million a year. The money from the tax, which will be collected from customers by Xcel Energy, will be used by the city to cover the costs of moving forward with forming a municipal utility, such as more studies and legal fees.

Issue 2C asked voters for permission to actually form a municipal utility. The language allows the city to sell the necessary bonds to take over the current system from Xcel, but it states that the city may only move forward with forming a municipal utility if it can start the utility with rates that are the same or cheaper than Xcel's.

Helpful Links:City of Boulder: This is where the city is aggregating all of its documents, meeting information and updates on Boulder s energy future: bouldercolorado.gov/energyfuture

RenewablesYes: This website is run by the group of volunteers that lobbied local voters to pass a utility occupation tax in November to replace the expiring franchise fee from Xcel Energy. Now, the group is advocating for the city to secure a cleaner, more local energy supply. renewablesyes.org

Xcel Energy: Xcel is the largest utility in Colorado, and it currently provides electricity to Boulder. The city s 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel expired at the end of 2010. xcelenergy.com

Boulder Smart Energy Coalition: A citizen group that supports the city's general energy goals but has concerns about the risks involved with starting a municipal utility. bouldersec.com

SmartGridCity: Xcel Energy has installed a smart grid in Boulder. This web site provides more information on that initiative. smartgridcity.xcelenergy.com

Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities: This Colorado Springs-based group represents the state s 29 municipal utilities, which include utilities based in Lyons and Longmont. coloradopublicpower.org